A pedestrian walks by the Northern Trust banking company’s headquarters. The company is one of many that rely on consultants, as corporate America spends an increasing amount on outside specialists.

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Good morning. U.S. corporations are spending more for sound advice, Tatyana Shumsky writes for CFO Journal in today’s Business & Tech. section. Finance chiefs at companies including Baxter International Inc., Northern Trust Corp. and Alaska Air Group Inc. are turning to outside consultants as they grapple with increasingly complex challenges ranging from shareholder activism to merger integration. The U.S. consulting market, the world’s largest, grew almost 8% last year, to nearly $55 billion, according to Source Global Research, and is expected to surge 10% this year.

In an era of slow economic growth, chief financial officers are looking for ways to expand revenue and profit while keeping head count low. Finance chiefs must weigh the steep costs of consulting services against the potential benefits that expert outside advice can deliver. Fast-paced technological innovation, increased regulation and new competition are among the factors contributing to the demand for outside advice, according to consultants and market researchers. Spending heavily on consultants raises the eyebrows of experts who think companies should have all the tools they need already in the C-suite.

CFO JOURNAL TODAY

A step in the right direction. U.S. corporations are looking for better places to invest their money other than plants, equipment, research or development, even as the amount it does spend on those things is growing. Combined capital expenditures and R&D were 7.4% of sales at more than 1,800 U.S. companies in 2015, according to data from Credit Suisse Group AG. That is above the 6.4% nadir the companies spent in 2010, but far below the 9.3% peak the companies clocked in 1991.

THE DAY AHEAD

Just because LinkedIn got a bid…Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition of LinkedIn Corp. has yielded an unlikely winner: Twitter Inc., Steven Russolillo writes for Ahead of the Tape.Shares of the beleaguered social-media platform have surged more than 30% since June 13, the day the LinkedIn deal was announced. The rationale may be that if the social-media space is poised for more consolidation, Twitter could be next. But Twitter and LinkedIn are different companies with very different business models. Twitter is a mobile-advertising play, while LinkedIn is much more diverse.

CORPORATE NEWS

Signage sits on the exterior of a Verizon Communications Inc. store in downtown Chicago.

Bloomberg News

Yahoo gives Verizon a billion users. Verizon CommunicationsInc.’s planned $4.8 billion acquisition of YahooInc. represents a bet that the troubled web portal will give the largest U.S. wireless carrier a leg up in expanding its audience as it diversifies away from being a telephone and internet provider. The transaction would help Verizon achieve its goal of increasing its global audience to two billion users and $20 billion in revenue by 2020 by marrying Yahoo’s content and its one billion monthly active users with Verizon’s 110 million customers. The carrier also would gain the rights to royalty payments from Yahoo Japan valued at tens of millions of dollars annually. But it will also assume about $1 billion of employee stock-based awards.

Apple taps trusted executive to head car project.Apple Inc. has tapped a highly regarded senior executive who helped bring to market many of Apple’s signature products to oversee its fledgling automobile project, according to people familiar with the matter. Bob Mansfield had stepped back from a day-to-day role at the company a few years ago, after leading the hardware engineering development of products including the MacBook Air laptop computer, the iMac desktop computer, and the iPad tablet. Apple now has Mr. Mansfield running the company’s secret autonomous-electric-vehicle initiative, code-named Project Titan, the people said.

Amazon gets U.K. drone permission.Amazon.com Inc. formed a partnership with the British government to test drones, beginning immediately, the New York Times reports. The move will allow Amazon to test piloting drones beyond the line of sight of operators and other aspects of the technology that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration so far has not permitted. It also indicates Amazon is comfortable with the prospect of doing business in Britain after it departs the European Union.

‘Pokémon Go’ captures little profit. After soaring over the previous two weeks, shares in Nintendo Co. plunged Monday following a company warning that the smash-hit smartphone game “Pokémon Go” would make a limited contribution to its earnings. Nintendo shares ended down by the maximum permitted amount, ¥5,000, for a decline of 18%. The company’s share price had doubled since “Pokémon Go” was released in the U.S. and other markets this month. Shares of McDonald’s Corp.’s Japan unit, which announced a “Pokémon Go” tie-up last week, also reversed direction Monday, closing 12% lower.

Yahoo will get stubby. Yahoo shareholders may wondering if and when what’s left of the company can turn into money they can share, Reuters reports. Most of the company’s market value comes from a 15% stake in Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and a 35.5% stake in its Yahoo Japan Corp. joint venture. Those aren’t included in the deal. Yahoo hasn’t been able to find a way to sell those stakes without paying a hefty tax bill.

Fifth Third axes top lawyer.Fifth Third Bancorp fired its general counsel late last week, people familiar with the matter said. It isn’t yet known who will replace Heather Russell Koenig, who was chief legal officer and corporate secretary for the Cincinnati bank. Fifth Third in a statement said a personal matter came up that it “believes represents a conflict of interest.” It said the matter had nothing to with her work at Fifth Third. Ms. Russell Koenig, who wasn’t immediately available to comment, has served as the top lawyer at Fifth Third since late September 2015.

LVMH sells Donna Karan.LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE agreed to sell Donna Karan International Inc. to apparel company G-III Apparel GroupLtd. for $650 million including debt, an unusual retreat for the French luxury giant. The Donna Karan and DKNY lines delivered lackluster growth for years amid stiff competition and capped investment from LVMH, which focused more on its eponymous brand, Céline and other labels it saw as having higher potential.

Tennessee, Zenefits settle. Zenefits has reached a settlement with a state insurance regulator over the improper sales practices of some of its employees—the first in a string of cases. Tennessee’s Department of Commerce and Insurance said the health-benefits broker would pay a fine, $62,500, to settle a “monthslong discussion and review” of “admitted unlicensed activity in Tennessee by Zenefits employees.” Zenefits faces several continuing investigations from other states, after the company failed to get the necessary licenses for its sales staff to broker health-insurance benefits, the primary way the startup makes money.

Starbucks reshuffles management.StarbucksCorp. said Monday it was reorganizing the roles of its senior leaders, a week after the coffee giant said it had missed sales targets for the third consecutive quarter. Chief Executive Howard Schultz said he was shifting his focus to the company’s long-term strategy and innovation efforts from its digital-technology efforts. Last week, Starbucks cited global economic uncertainty and a “profound weakening in consumer confidence” as reasons for its sales slowdown in the latest quarter.

GM puts brakes on India plans.General Motors Co. has put a $1 billion India investment plan on hold as it reshuffles its product plan to better meet changing consumer tastes and jump-start its sluggish performance in the fast growing market. GM will no longer plan to launch its Chevrolet Spin minivan in India and will instead focus on the fast-growing sport-utility vehicle market in India. Regulatory uncertainty is also giving the Detroit auto maker reason to re-evaluate its strategy.

REGULATION

A Goldman Sachs sign.

david gray/Reuters

Fed readies action against Goldman. Two years after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid a $50 million to New York state regulators for failing to properly supervise a banker who was leaked news by a Federal Reserve employee, the Fed has come for Goldman. The Fed is preparing an enforcement action against the investment bank, and people familiar with the matter told the New York Times. Both men involved in the original case pleaded guilty. The Fed is also considering action against another Goldman banker, but unlike Goldman, the former employee plans to fight any charges.

Platinum investigated for fraud. Intimate ties and fundraising inside a close-knit world of observant Jewish businesspeople in New York, Florida and Israel are central to the $1.25 billion hedge-fund firm Murray Huberfeld has helped lead, Platinum Partners. Now those ties are being tested as two sets of federal prosecutors as well as securities regulators delve into Platinum’s operations. In early June, Mr. Huberfeld was arrested in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe a union leader to funnel $20 million to Platinum. Later in June, federal agents raided Platinum’s New York offices.

Complaints flock to CFPB.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaint portal has emerged as a go-to spot for consumers with frustrations about their financial firms. It has burnished the agency’s consumer-advocacy role, while also generating controversy with businesses and some lawmakers. Over its five years, it has since handled more than 930,000 consumer complaints on a range of financial services. Some financial industry officials and Republican lawmakers say the database is rife with inaccurate information. There is also worry that the CFPB’s publication of unverified complaints risks unfairly harming firms.

EARNINGS

The Sprint logo.

Associated Press

Sprint adds customers. Sprint Corp. reported strong customer additions in the latest quarter and signaled a possible end to the deep discounts it has used to attract new subscribers, raising hopes that its turnaround is taking hold. Shares of the wireless carrier rose 28% to $5.90 on Monday, their highest level since late 2014. Sprint added 173,000 postpaid net subscribers—its most-profitable type of customers. By comparison, AT&TInc. reported last week that it lost 180,000 wireless connections in the same period. Still, Sprint’s quarterly loss widened to $302 million.

ECONOMY

Pension returns hit nadir. Long-term returns for U.S. public pensions are expected to drop to the lowest levels ever recorded, portending deeper pain for states and cities as a $1 trillion funding gap widens. Twenty-year annualized returns for public pensions in the U.S. are poised to decline below 7.5% once fiscal 2016 results are released in coming weeks, according to an estimate from Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service. In 2001, near the height of the dot-com boom, pensions’ 20-year median return was 12.3%. The dip is intensifying a national debate over whether states and cities can continue to afford pension obligations, as the soaring costs are squeezing budgets across the U.S.

Egypt seen devaluing pound again. The Egyptian pound fell Monday to its lowest-ever valuation on the unofficial black market amid increasing bets that a weaker economy will force Cairo to devalue its local currency again. The North African nation’s currency has tumbled in recent weeks and was trading Monday afternoon at around 13 to a U.S. dollar, according to some exchange houses in Cairo. That is sharply lower than the official exchange rate the central bank has kept steady at about 8.88 a dollar since devaluing the currency in March.

CFO MOVES

S&P Global Inc., the New York index and ratings company, named Robert MacKay interim finance chief, effective Aug. 5 He will succeed Jack Callahan, who announced in June he would leave to take the newly created post of operating chief at Yale University, his alma mater. Mr. MacKay joined the company last May, and before that spent 18 years with PepsiCo Inc., most recently as controller for PepsiCo Americas Beverages.

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For some CFOs, information technology and its related costs can look like a black box, one that they might be reluctant to open. Meanwhile, as the pace of digital technology innovations quickens—along with its ability to disrupt business—CFOs are being inundated with technology requests, and differentiating them can be difficult. Charles Holley, an independent senior advisor to Deloitte, discusses how a top-down, strategy-first approach to evaluating technology requests can help CFOs filter which projects might make the most sense from a strategic and financial standpoint, given short- and long-term priorities.

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